But he insists there is not the power to merge the Duchy, Devon and Dorset together.

He said: "There is very significant savings to be found with collaborating with another police force, on the face of it, collaborating in the crime areas, or collaborating in obvious areas like cars and dogs and such like.

"We need to manage the demand, we need to do things differently, we need to look to break any cultural habits that would prevent us moving forward and being more efficient."